ABC takes ratings sweeps behind ``Millionaire'' again

BY DAVID
BAUDERAP Television Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- ABC won its second straight ratings ``sweeps'' month behind the
indomitable ``Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,'' which accounted for five of the
seven most-watched television shows last week.

ABC, which hadn't won a February ratings sweep period since 1988, also won in
November. Ratings are used during sweeps month to set local advertising rates.

Its network rivals, to blunt the impact of a sweeps month loss, point out
that ABC's success was almost solely attributable to one show, since
``Millionaire'' accounted for 18 percent of the network's prime-time schedule in
February.

``Had I had `Millionaire,'' I would have had it on 25 percent of my
schedule,'' CBS President Leslie Moonves said Tuesday. ABC executives said
there's strength elsewhere on ABC's schedule, too.

``All things have to fall,'' top NBC researcher Alan Wurtzel said. ``At some
point, there will be a saturation. It's just that nobody knows exactly when.''

Not last week, plainly. All five ``Millionaire'' editions drew between 23
million and 29 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Yet the game show isn't necessarily destroying everything in its path. CBS
had the best ratings since 1993 for its telecast of the Grammy Awards, and was
up 12 percent in viewers over last year, despite competing during its first hour
with ``Millionaire.''

NBC's ``Frasier'' also had strong ratings last week despite going up against
the game show.

CBS was the winner in Sunday's faceoff of high-profile movies. Its ``Perfect
Murder, Perfect Town'' movie about JonBenet Ramsey had nearly 19 million
viewers, a million more than ABC's movie about the Beach Boys. Part one of NBC's
miniseries, ``The 10th Kingdom,'' lagged far behind with 14 million viewers.

For the week, ABC averaged 16.6 million viewers in prime-time (10.9 rating,
18 share). CBS was second with 14.9 million viewers (10.0, 16), NBC had 13
million viewers (8.9, 14), and Fox had 9.8 million viewers (6.3, 10).

Among the mini-networks, UPN had 3.8 million viewers (2.6 rating, 4 share),
the WB had 3.7 million viewers (2.7, 4), and Pax TV had 1 million viewers (0.8,
1).

A rating point represents 1,008,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's
estimated 100.8 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use
televisions tuned to a given show. It's possible for a show to have a higher
rating than a competitor but fewer viewers; that indicates the higher-rated show
had more people watching alone.

For the week of Feb. 21-27, the top 10 shows, their networks and ratings
were: